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Blue Dragon (Xbox360) |OT|

XSamu

Banned
FFChris said:
I was looking towards maybe renting that one. The gay character kind of puts me off though. (I know, it's terrible that I'm getting put off by one character, but seriously, he is such a queen.)
It's not terrible, I had the same thing. But a friend of mine, who had bought the game before me told me that he "died" after a short time in the game. And I can confirm that, so no worries.
 
I'm glad the Blue Dragon dates flies away from the Mass Effect date (they were too close, I think), but August? I thought late June or July-ish would have been good.

Still, good news, and glad to hear confirmation that LO will make it here by the end of this year.
 

madhtr

Member
Well, the Blue Dragon anime has Tara Strong playing Kluke if that helps any. Eventhough the Japanese game cast and anime cast are different.

Also, in Game Infromer, Microsoft mentioned that the game would be playable in English and Japanese.
 

Geek

Ninny Prancer
WickedLaharl said:
I hope that they give us the option to play the game with either english or japanese dialogue.

You can stop hoping. :) Both tracks are planned for the US release.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Geek said:
You can stop hoping. :) Both tracks are planned for the US release.
OK, where did you hear that? It would be nice, but considering the game already shipped on 3 DVDs, I don't see how it's possible.
 

madhtr

Member
dark10x said:
OK, where did you hear that? It would be nice, but considering the game already shipped on 3 DVDs, I don't see how it's possible.
In Game Informer, said by someone from Microsoft
 

Geek

Ninny Prancer
dark10x said:
OK, where did you hear that? It would be nice, but considering the game already shipped on 3 DVDs, I don't see how it's possible.

I'm at the MS GDC event today. I'll get double confirmation, as it's fairly big news and want to make sure this was not a poorly translated piece of information.

EDIT: Yep. That's confirmed. Both tracks will be included.
 

szaromir

Banned
Sorry, I didn't follow any Blue Dragon news for a while. Are there any new features planned for US/PAL release since it's taking them forever to bring it here?
 
I was really hoping for a late May release but I guess I can hold off until August. At least I'll be able to enjoy some JRPG turn-based goodness in May when Etrian Odyssey comes out.
 
Geek said:
I'm at the MS GDC event today. I'll get double confirmation, as it's fairly big news and want to make sure this was not a poorly translated piece of information.

hey Geek, it would be much appreciated if you could ask about the launch date for Blue Dragon in Europe.. i still haven't read about it, i just know that it's been confirmed August for NA, but no signals for Europe..

thanks in advance
 

Geek

Ninny Prancer
intheinbetween said:
hey Geek, it would be much appreciated if you could ask about the launch date for Blue Dragon in Europe.. i still haven't read about it, i just know that it's been confirmed August for NA, but no signals for Europe..

thanks in advance

Honestly I don't think the guys in the States know the answer to that. Looking at the fact sheet, they don't even mention a European release date. I'll see what I can find out.
 

Llyranor

Member
Geek said:
I'm at the MS GDC event today. I'll get double confirmation, as it's fairly big news and want to make sure this was not a poorly translated piece of information.

EDIT: Yep. That's confirmed. Both tracks will be included.
Hmm, very very nice.
 

Hunahan

Banned
Sigh. Another two months, eh. Well.........we've waited this long, I guess.


Also surprising to hear Lost Odyssey is still on track. I really expected that to be bumped for NA. Good stuff, good stuff.

Fall is going to be absolutely insane.
 
BlimBlim said this was his goty so, i'm very much looking forward to it. But it's coming kinda late...or not, since it will begin the later part of the year gaming craze.
 

FrankT

Member
Previews: Blue Dragon
GDC 2007: We get our first sample of the English voice work.

By Garnett Lee 03/06/2007

In press meetings today at GDC Microsoft showed us an early build of the North American version of Blue Dragon. Creator Hironobu Sakaguchi personally led a brief guided tour that included a first sampling of the English voice work. While we expect the official announcements shortly, even at this early stage it is clear from what we heard that these are experienced professional voice actors. Nene, the main bad guy, sounded suitably menacing, while main character Shu's voice had a nice youthful yet firm inflection. Sakaguchi explained that while selecting who would do the voice work the developers gave a good deal of consideration to matching the Japanese intonation of the dialogue, and they continue to work on that as they refine each passage. In addition to the spoken parts, two songs from the original soundtrack will be translated as well.
Otherwise, the American version of Blue Dragon will be faithfully brought over unaltered from the game's Japanese release. Sakaguchi did take us through a couple of battles, though. Being able to see the enemies while adventuring, and the lack of a long loading screen when transitioning to the battle screen, integrates combat smoothly into the flow of the game.

During combat, the sequence of battle will feel familiar to Final Fantasy veterans as you select actions for each character from a tree of menus. For the most part these actions are carried out by the game's signature shadow characters, such as Shu's Blue Dragon. Almost like summons, they project from each character as a physical representation of their inner strength, and give the action a dramatic flair. Sakaguchi also demonstrated one of three shooting stages which have a very arcade-like feel. In this one, he manned the turret gun on Shu's ship while being chased through a long tunnel. Along with firing the gatling gun, he had a lock-on that launched guided missiles to take out weak spots on his pursuer.

The demo whet our appetite for Blue Dragon, but it looks like it will be a while before we get to satisfy our craving. The current plan aims for a late-August release, and, as in Japan, it will come on three discs. Microsoft also confirmed plans for follow-up downloadable content after the launch in three waves. These will ultimately include remixes of environments and events in existing dungeons, as well as an all new dungeon.

In the meantime, for more a more detailed look check out our preview of the imported Japanese version.

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=3157766

Oh man, this is sounding good.
 

Blimblim

The Inside Track
bd01.jpg

Looks like there is a new downloadable item that shows where there are some hidden items. Nice!
 

Jonnyram

Member
Yep... it's the "nothing" glasses actually. I think it only shows the spots where there is "nothing" rather than all hidden items.
 

Hunahan

Banned
IGN's got a new write up on the localization: here.

Mostly boring stuff about localization processes in general, but there are 6 new screenshots I hadn't seen before in the media section, as well as a list of the voice actors for the NA version.

They're listing Mona Marshall as Shu, but I'm not sure if that's a signal crossing or a different Mona Marshall than imdb is listing. I can't quite picture Shu and South Park's Sheila Broflovski being one and the same.....

Either way, the rest of the cast:

Fred Tataciore (Blue Dragon)
Known for: Gears of War as Damon Baird

Tara Strong (Kluke)
Known for: Rikku in Kingdom Hearts II

and the rest, with imdb links since there's no real standout obvious role, but several you may or may not know:

Steve Staley (Jiro)
Nika Futterman (Marumaro)
Cindy Robinson (Zola)
Richard Herd (Nene)

five more months...sigh.
 

JoeFenix

Member
This summer we are getting Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata and Culdcept.

Couldn't they space them out a little bit more? Good time to be a 360 owner though! :D
 
JoeFenix said:
This summer we are getting Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata and Culdcept.

Couldn't they space them out a little bit more? Good time to be a 360 owner though! :D

And Mass Effect, too, if you're counting the RPGs. But yeah -- this is awesome. And then we're going to get some others later in the year, too.
 

duckroll

Member
Hunahan said:
Fred Tataciore (Blue Dragon)
Known for: Gears of War as Damon Baird

That's..... weird. The Blue Dragon in the game never talks, but if they mean the voice that speaks before they get their shadows... in the Japanese version it was a female voice. ^^;;;;
 

Hunahan

Banned
duckroll said:
That's..... weird. The Blue Dragon in the game never talks, but if they mean the voice that speaks before they get their shadows... in the Japanese version it was a female voice. ^^;;;;

Could be that they mixed up Shu and the Blue Dragon then. Everything sort of falls into place if they've just swapped them around, since as it stands, Shu is voiced by a female, eh.

The last paragraph is written a bit strange, however, so the other possibility is that I'm just not reading it right if anyone else wants to give a try deciphering what they are talking about with Baird.
 

Takuhi

Member
The Blue Dragon voice guy can't be the female at the beginning because it would screw up a later plot point. Maybe he just does a bunch of grunts and roars or something.

Has anyone read anything about them upping the difficulty? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE tell me that someone has. Or at they'll at least ship it with the Hard Mode instead of making it a downloadable FOUR MONTHS LATER.
 

duckroll

Member
Hunahan said:
Could be that they mixed up Shu and the Blue Dragon then. Everything sort of falls into place if they've just swapped them around, since as it stands, Shu is voiced by a female, eh.

The last paragraph is written a bit strange, however, so the other possibility is that I'm just not reading it right if anyone else wants to give a try deciphering what they are talking about with Baird.

The way it's worded, they're just saying that the game has the voice talent of Fred, but they don't name who he's voicing. Since they name the rest of the main cast, I'm guessing that he'll likely be voicing Zabo, since it'll be a good choice based on the characters he plays and the character in the game.


Takuhi said:
Has anyone read anything about them upping the difficulty? PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE tell me that someone has. Or at they'll at least ship it with the Hard Mode instead of making it a downloadable FOUR MONTHS LATER.

IGN seems a little confused....

IGN said:
There is one place where new content will exist for the North American and European versions of the retail disc. The first downloadable update made available in Japan (primarily consisting of new difficulty levels) will be included out of the box. The other three pieces of downloadable content, entitled Strong Game, 6 Treasures and Shuffled Dungeon, will be translated and put up on the Marketplace after Blue Dragon is released here and in Europe.

That seems to be inaccurate. The first downloadable update in Japan was for Mechat (airship) parts, which was pretty much a completely useless update. The difficulty settings are the "Strong Game" they mentioned, which they say will not be out of the box. Once again, IGN proves they do shit-all research and just confuses matters even more. Great.
 

Takuhi

Member
duckroll said:
That seems to be inaccurate. The first downloadable update in Japan was for Mechat (airship) parts, which was pretty much a completely useless update. The difficulty settings are the "Strong Game" they mentioned, which they say will not be out of the box. Once again, IGN proves they do shit-all research and just confuses matters even more. Great.

Well, that's certainly hopeful! As I recall, the Mechat Parts update wasn't part of the original DLC rollout plan, it was more like a patch for Japanese gamers who somehow couldn't beat the most softball shooting segments ever made. So maybe the difficulty modes then count as the first real update. And maybe they're dividing "Strong Game" into Hard Mode (packed into the disc) and New Game+ (downloadable) for the US market? Or maybe, as you said, IGN are completely clueless and I should disregard the article entirely.

Has anyone given DLC Hard mode a shot in the J version? I wonder if it's a well-balanced, as tough-as-it-should-have-been sort of thing, or if it's just an unpolished "double all the enemies' stat values" sort of thing where you'll be randomly raped by enemy attacks that can wipe out your entire party.
 

Hunahan

Banned
duckroll said:
The way it's worded, they're just saying that the game has the voice talent of Fred, but they don't name who he's voicing. Since they name the rest of the main cast, I'm guessing that he'll likely be voicing Zabo, since it'll be a good choice based on the characters he plays and the character in the game.

Yeah, I was keying in on this part:

"Though Blue Dragon has the voice of Baird, we're pretty sure we won't get the same curt and curse heavy dialogue we heard in Gears of War"

Although that could simply be referring to the game title instead of the character. My bad.
 
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